The present invention relates to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, and more particularly to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material which is excellent in the layer's physical characteristics as well as in the raw-stock preservability.
A silver halide photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter may be called "light-sensitive material" unless confusion occurs) is prepared so as to comprise photographic layers such as light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers and subsidiary function-having various sub-layers such as anti-irradiation layer, antihalation layer, intermediate layer for intercepting the interlayer effect, filter layer, protective layer, and the like, while a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter may be called "color light-sensitive material" unless confusion occurs) comprises silver halide emulsion layers containing couplers that will form specified spectral-region colors conformed to a fixed order.
The photographic layers of such light-sensitive materials use a hydrophilic colloid such as gelatin as the binder thereof, and the binder is usually subjected to hardening treatment to meet the need of having the light-sensitive material withstand recent high-temperature/high-pH rapid processings and mechanical processings in automatic processors that tend to cause troubles such as scratches, pressure marks, etc.
The hardening treatment is essential for insuring the processed quality in the aspect of physical properties except for special cases, and as the agent for use in the hardening treatment various hardeners ranging from incipient inorganic-compound hardeners such as potassium alum, chrome alum, etc., to organic hardeners which are more highly adaptable to photographic characteristics have so far been studied and used to date.
For example, the organic hardener includes those chlorotriazine-type hardeners as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,325,287, 3,645,743 and Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) No. 40244/1982, those vinyl sulfone-type hardeners as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,911 and West German OLS Pat. No. 2,749,260, and various other hardeners such as aldehyde-type, epoxy-type and the like compounds.
The hardener, on the assumption that it has a matter-of-course hardening effect, is required to have the characteristics that the hardening by the hardener be capable of producing a gloss on the surface of the layer of a light-sensitive material, of making the layer adhere well to the support, of making progress fast, and of making the layer well resistant against scratching force; and the hardener being harmless to photographic characteristics and having no possibility to cause any industrial-hygienic or environmental-pollution problems.
In view of these requirements, for example, S-triazine-type hardeners are disadvantageous in respect that they lack rapid-hardening ability, and vinyl sulfone-type hardeners are also disadvantageous in respect that they are lacking in making the surface of the layer glossy as well as in making the layer adhere to the support and resistant against scratching force, whereas chlorotriazine-type hardeners have at least satisfactory characteristics which meet the above physical characteristic requirements, as described in Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 6151/1972, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 19220/1973, 78788/1976, 128130/1977, 130326/1977 and 1043/1981.
The chlorotriazine-type hardener, however, has a large disadvantage that, when it is used in a color photographic light-sensitive material for making color prints, the preservability of the light-sensitive material as a raw stock during the period from its manufacture up to the time when it is used (hereinafter called "raw-stock preservability") is so poor that the sensitivity of the light-sensitive material is largely deteriorated with time.